DIY SAN/NAS – quest for fast, reliable, shared storage with a twist of ZFS! (Part 1)
Jun22

DIY SAN/NAS – quest for fast, reliable, shared storage with a twist of ZFS! (Part 1)

Choosing prebuilt SAN is cheating – let’s build something from nothing and learn ZFS on the way! Read more about my FreeNAS/ZFS adventure using a Dell R510.

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VMware Guest Customization working with Ubuntu 16.04!
May02

VMware Guest Customization working with Ubuntu 16.04!

Ubuntu 16.04 now implements vSphere Customization Specifications exactly!

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RAID Levels – Spans, Stripes, IOPS, Oh My!
Aug04

RAID Levels – Spans, Stripes, IOPS, Oh My!

“What RAID level should I use?” “Raid 10 is better than RAID 5.” These are all common discussion topics but the truth is that there is more to it than that! Check out this benchmark test showing the strengths and weaknesses of each configuration!

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Microsofts new torrent-like Update methodology made it to release!  Default is on.
Jul29

Microsofts new torrent-like Update methodology made it to release! Default is on.

So I am not entirely sure of the details surrounding this “feature” but I and a few of my co-workers were surprised that this is even an option: I am interested in finding out the details behind how they handle this, but its super interesting to me that this peer-to-peer update method made its way to market. Apparently this P2P API has been part of Windows since XP but nothing used it.  So, there are a few questions that I...

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Web farm re-arch.  Doing more with less!
Jun28

Web farm re-arch. Doing more with less!

Homelabs are great learning tools, but if you’re not careful you can experience nasty VM sprawl! Consolidation is key. In this blog post we dial the resources back while preserving the performance! Read more!

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Windows Server Tech Preview 2 – oh, that’s… something.
Jun05

Windows Server Tech Preview 2 – oh, that’s… something.

Taking Windows Server Technical Preview 2 for a test drive is a lot like like driving a concept car. Some stuff is new, some stuff is cool, and other stuff is plain confusing and weird. Read more!

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